Medical Groups

Jeff Loughlin, project director at the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative and executive director of the Regional Extension Center of New Hampshire, shares his perspectives on the current state of EHR adoption among medical groups-and the lessons that have been learned by leaders of the regional extension centers.

An interdisciplinary team of clinicians, informaticists, and quality experts at NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, Ill., has taken a major step in controlling this disease in its outpatient population, by harnessing its electronic health record (EHR) to screen for and evaluate individuals with previously undetected hypertension in its multi-specialty medical group. The system, which went live in January 2011, has helped the integrated health system make significant progress in eliminating undiagnosed hypertension among its patients receiving care within its primary care network.

Leaders at the Colorado Beacon Consortium are leveraging powerful analytics and health information exchange tools to support region-wide, physician practice-based population health tools, for the benefit of patients scattered across the Rocky Mountain west.

On Jan. 14, the Chicago-based American Medical Association (AMA) submitted formal comments to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), in response to the release of the Health IT Policy Committee’s proposal for Stage 3 of meaningful use under the HITECH Act.

The relationship between a physician practice's adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) and quality improvements in patient care remains unclear. However, a new study published in the January issue of Health Affairs by Weill Cornell Medical College and the Primary Care Information Project (PCIP) of the New York City Health Department shows evidence that EHR implementation can improve patient care in small physician practices in New York City when combined with sustained high-intensity technical assistance.